Red Sox: Walk This Way with Drew Pomeranz
By Rick McNair
The Red Sox made the anticipated pitching move and just what stands out as a potential warning flag on Drew Pomeranz?
The Red Sox have pulled the necessary trade trigger and acquired a pitcher – Drew Pomeranz – to solidify the leaky rotation. This is the fourth organization for the 27-year-old lefty since he was drafted by Cleveland in 2011. Is he that valuable or is there an undercurrent of ability questions with the three previous homes? Only time will tell.
By now the statistical tale of Pomeranz is part of Red Sox Nation metric gene structure. Emblazoned in our memories is every pitching nuance as gathered via media or FanGraphs. Much internet ink is being spent on velocities, pitch types, and just about every conceivable metric that can simply make me wish to start cutting myself.
My immediate connection was portside pitching and the Blue Jays right-handed lineup, but Pomeranz this season has dulled right-handed bats, but that came only after my first and most important look at our latest (hopefully) Gorilla Glue to the pitching staff.
So I can be part of the parade or left behind and I grabbed a non-alcoholic beverage and looked over Mr. Pomeranz pitching portfolio attempting to find a sliver of negativity – since I am a firm believer in accentuating the negative at the expense of the positive. I did not disappoint myself.
With Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” providing the background music in my brain pan I checked on Pomeranz.
In fact, the very first stats I always look at is WHIP and BB/9. This season the WHIP of our new hire is exemplary, but that BB/9? The career total is 3.84 and a bit more respectable 3.62 for 2016, but well below my the yellow tape warning sign of anything over 3.00.
I hate walks. Always have. Lay in a meatball or toss one right down Broadway and you may get lucky and it stays in the park or better still encounters a defensive player’s glove. Walks are right on the top of my pitching sins. Clay Buchholz can take root on the mound as he ponders his next pitch – an hourglass timing his sloth’s pace, but the walks are the fingernails on the chalkboard.
The Red Sox as a team have a BB/9 of 3.26 or 12th place in the majors. Acceptable to some, but to me, it is pitching Ebola. I will take on a Zika ridden mosquito rather than see a walk. Even intentional ones despite the managerial logic leave me in a quite perplexing state.
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Hopefully, the newcomer will continue to give up hits in surprising moderation and the free passes will have minimal impact, but being one prone to assuming the absolute worse will transpire on the mound I will sign up for meditation.
The bright side is this is a solid move. Pomeranz – does he have a clever nickname – will provide some needed stabilization to a weary and ragged rotation. Perform like he did in San Diego and the Red Sox have a solid four in their rotation. You win with pitching and this kid may be about as good as what was on the market. Pomeranz also is under team control for a few seasons so that is a plus.
The Red Sox may have had a choice in Anderson Espinoza or Michael Kopech. That will be interesting to see as word leaks out from the usual “unnamed sources.” Just who do the Red Sox value higher? And along those lines were they more willing to trade a rubber arm than a wooden bat?
Just what did the Braves want for Julio Teheran? Reading the various statements from Braves fans Teheran was a clone of Walter Johnson. An interesting sidebar will be any of the negotiations between the Braves and Red Sox.
Next: Red Sox aquire All-Star pitcher Drew Pomeranz
Now the idea is to sit back and see how the other teams in the American League East respond to the Red Sox escalation.